Congestive heart failure and chronic kidney disease are characterized by chronically elevated angiotensin II (Ang II) and muscle wasting. Ang II causes skeletal muscle wasting by reducing appetite and by enhancing catabolism. The serine/threonine kinase AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) functions mainly as a sensor of cellular energy status. It is energy sparing and favors ATP generation. We ...

Weight loss and muscle wasting remain significant clinical problems, even in the era of potent antiretroviral therapy. In patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), wasting, particularly loss of metabolically active lean tissue, has been associated with increased mortality, accelerated disease progression, loss of muscle protein mass, and impairment of strength and functional st...

OBJECTIVE To understand how social context affects the nutritional status of populations, as reflected by the prevalence of wasting in children under 5 years of age from Africa, Latin America, and Asia; to present a systematic way of building models for wasting prevalence, using a conceptual framework for the determinants of malnutrition; and to examine the feasibility of using readily availabl...

OBJECTIVE To compare the incidence of wasting, stunting, and mortality among children aged 6 to 36 months who are receiving preventive supplementation with either ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSFs) or ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs). SUBJECTS AND METHODS Children aged 6 to 36 months in 12 villages of Maradi, Niger, (n = 1645) received a monthly distribution of RUSFs (247 kcal [3 ...

The term uraemic myopathy has been used loosely to describe the skeletal muscle abnormalities in uraemic patients. However, it does not fully explain the observed abnormalities as recent research has documented a normal skeletal muscle physiology in the presence of reduced muscle force, selective structural changes and significant muscle wasting. Ageing is associated with sarcopenia (muscle was...

Sarcopenia (muscle wasting) and cachexia share some pathophysiological aspects. Sarcopenia affects approximately 20 %, cachexia <10 % of ambulatory patients with heart failure (HF). Whilst sarcopenia means loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength that predominantly affects postural rather than non-postural muscles, cachexia means loss of muscle and fat tissue that leads to weight loss. The was...

The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is believed to degrade the major contractile skeletal muscle proteins and plays a major role in muscle wasting. Different and multiple events in the ubiquitination, deubiquitination and proteolytic machineries are responsible for the activation of the system and subsequent muscle wasting. However, other proteolytic enzymes act upstream (possibly m-calpain, ...